Queens grandmother sentenced for shooting death of daughter's boyfriend

A grandmother was sentenced to 23 years in prison for shooting the father of her grandchild in his Queens home in July 2020, according to prosecutors.

Suzette Olin, 68, was sentenced Wednesday after being convicted in March to 23 years in prison followed by 5 years post-release supervision for manslaughter in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree

According to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, citing the trial testimony, on July 26, 2020 at around 2 p.m. a neighbor called 911 after discovering Shaka Ifil, who at that time was 40 years old, on the floor of his 91st Avenue apartment with a gunshot wound to his back.

Ifil, who was the boyfriend of Olin's daughter and had a child with her, told police that his girlfriend’s mother shot him, according to trial testimony. He died later that day at a local hospital due to gunshot injuries.

Security camera video showed a woman apparently smoking a cigarette get out of an Access-A-Ride car service vehicle near Ifil’s home at about 1:51 p.m. July 26, 2020, and then leave the home at 2:01 p.m., according to the trial testimony. The woman was identified as Olin and a DNA test of a cigarette butt found in the apartment linked her to the location.

A subsequent probe revealed that three days before the shooting, Olin’s daughter filed a domestic incident report with police alleging Ifil broke a door in their apartment. Police responded, and bodycam footage showed the broken door. The girlfriend did not appear to be injured.